A commercial for Five Star chicken shows how elderly Thai people started broadcasting on TikTok to get the attention of their children or grandchildren. BANGKOK – I don’t cry easily, but Thai commercials leave me a snivelling mess. Thailand churns out advertisements that feel more like absorbing films you want to watch on loop.
One five-minute gem which emerged in 2023 managed to marry lonely grandparents, TikTok and fried chicken. The shot opens with a wrinkled face painted blue. The woman it belongs to sports pointy prosthetic ears and a wig of braids in the likeness of Princess Neytiri, a character from the 2009 science fiction flick Avatar.
Probably tickled that she is not doing a very convincing cosplay, she chuckles while the camera is rolling for a TikTok video. Later, she stills herself enough to say: “Granny is really worried about you. I really want to see you.
Come and have a meal with me. It’d make me really happy.” It turns out that she has ventured onto TikTok to get the attention of her granddaughter, who goes by the nickname Balloon.
The younger woman has been too absorbed with her job in the city and social media content on her phone to pay much heed to her granny. Balloon starts tearing up when she watches her grandmother’s TikTok video. She hops onto a train, embraces her granny, and they tuck into a meal of fried chicken from Thailand’s Five Star franchise.
The plot is poignant and the characters are authentic enough for me to not only tolera.